Joan of Arc Biography Part 16

By Jules Michelet The Maid of Orleans

Canchon, at first, had hoped to have
on his side the authority of the law
yers, which carried great weight at
Rouen. But he had soon found out
that he must do without them. When
he showed the minutes of the opening
proceedings of the trial to one of
these grave legists, master Jehan
Lohier, the latter plainly told him that
the trial amounted to nothing ; that it
was all informal; that the assessors
were not free to judge ; that the pro
ceedings were carried on with closed
doors; that the accused, a simple coun
try girl, was not capable of answering
on such grave subjects and to learned
doctors; and, finally, the lawyer had
the boldness to say to the churchman,
" The proceedings are, in point of fact.
instituted to impugn the honor of the
prince, whose side this girl espouses ;
you shall cite him to appear as well,
and assign him an advocate." This
intrepid gravity, which recalls Papini
an's bearing towards Caracalla, would
have cost Lohier dear; but the Nor
man Papinian did not, like the other,
calmly wait the deathstroke on his
curule chair ; he set off at once for
Rome, where the pope eagerly at
tached such a man to himself, and
appointed him one of the judges of
the Holy See : he died, dean of the
Beta.

Apparently, Cauchon ought to have
been better supported by the theolo
gians. After the first examinations,
armed with the answers, which she
had given against herself, he shut him
self up with his intimates, and availing
himself, especially, of the pen of an
able member of the University of
Paris^ he drew from these answers a
few counts, on which the opinion of
the leading doctors and of the ecclesi
astical bodies was to be taken. This
was the detestable custom, but in re
ality (whatever has been said to the
tjontrary) the common and regular
way of proceeding in inquisitorial
trials. These propositions, extracted
from the answers given by the Pu
celle, and drawn up in general terms,
bore a false show of impartiality ;
although, in point of fact, they were
a caricature of those answers, and the
doctors consulted could not fail to
pass an opinion upon them, in accord
ance with the hostile intention of their
iniquitous framers.

But, however the counts might be
framed - however great the terror
which hung over the doctors consulted, they were far from being unani
mous in their judgments. Among
these doctors, the true theologians,
the sincere believers, those who had
preserved the firm faith of the middle
age, could not easily reject this tale of
celestial appearances, of visions; for
then they might have doubted all th^
marvels of the lives of the saints, and
discussed all their legends. The ven
erable bishop of Avranches replied,
on being consulted, that, according to
the teaching of St. Thomas, there
was nothing impossible in what this
girl affirmed, nothing to be lightly
rejected.

The bishop of Lisieux, while ac
knowledging that Jeanne's revelations
might be the work of the devil, hu
manely added, that they might also be
simple lies, and that if she did not sub
mit herself to the Church, she must be
adjudged schismatic, and be vehe
mently suspect^ in regard to faith.

Many legists answered like trne
Normans, by finding her guilty and
most guilty, except she acted by Ood^s
command. One bachelor at law went
further than this ; while condemning
her, he demanded, in consideration of
the weakness of her sex, that the
twelve propositions should be read
over to her (he suspected, and with
reason, that they had not been com
municated to her), and that they
should then be laid before the pope -
this would have been adjourning the
matter indefinitely.

The assessors, assembled in the
chapel of the archbishopric, had de
cided against her on the showing of
these propositions. The chapter of
Rouen, likewise consulted, was in no
haste to come to a decision, and to
give the victory to the man it detested
and trembled at having for its arch
bishop; but chose to wait for the
reply from the University of Paris,
which had been applied to on the sub
ject. There could be no doubt what
this reply would be; the Gallican
party, that is, the University and
scholastic party, could not be favor
able to the Pucelle ; an individual of
this party, the bishop of Coutances,
went beyond all others in the harsh
ness and singularity of his answer.
He wrote to the bishop of Beauvais,
that he considered the accused to be
wholly the deviPs, " because she was
without the two qualities required by
St. Gregory, - virtue and humanity,"
and that her assertions were so hereti
cal, that though she should revoke
them, she must nevertheless be held in
strict keeping.

It was a strange spectacle to see
these theologians, these doctors, labor*
ing with all their might to ruin the^
very faith which was the foundation
of their doctrine, and which consti
tuted the religious principle of the
middle age in general, - belief in reve
lations ; in the intervention of super
natural beings. . . . They might have
their doubts as to the intervention of
angels ; but their belief in the devil's
agencies was implicit.

And was not the important question
whether internal revelations ought to
be hushed, and to disavow themselves
at the Church's bidding, was not this
question, so loudly debated in the
outer world, silently discussed in the
inner world, in the soul of her who
affirmed and who believed in their
existence the most firmly of all?
Was not this battle of faith fought
in the very sanctuary of faith ? fought
in this loyal and simple heart ? . . . I
have reason to believe so.

At one time she expressed her readi
ness to submit herself to the pope, and
asked to be sent to him. At another
she drew a distinction, maintaining
that as regarded faith she acknowl
edged the authority of the pope, the
bishops, and the Church, but, as re
garded what she had done, she could
own no other judge than God. Some
times, making no distinction, and offer
ing no explanation, she appealed " to
her King, to the judge of heaven and
of earth."

Whatever care has been taken to
throw these things into the shade, and
to conceal this, the human side, in a
being who has been fondly painted as
all divine, her fluctuations are visible ;
and it is wrong to charge her judges
with having misled her so as to make
her prevaricate on those questions.
" She was very subtle," says one of
the witnesses, and, truly; "of a
woman's subtlety." I incline to at
tribute to these internal struggles the
sickness which attacked her, and
which brought her to the point of
death; nor did she recover, as she
herself informs us, until the period
that the angel Michael, the angel of
battles, ceased to support her, and
gave place to Gabriel, the angel of
grace and of divine love.

She fell sick in Passion week. Her
temptation began, no doubt, on Palm
Sunday.1 A country girl, born on the
skirts of a forest, and having ever
lived in the open air of heaven, she
was compelled to pass this fine Palm
Sunday in the depths of a dungeon.
The grand succor which the Church
invokes2 came not for her ; the doors
did not open.

They were opened on the Tuesday ;
but it was to lead the accused to the
great hall of the castle before her
judges. They read to her the articles
which had been founded on her an
swers, and the bishop previously rep
resented to her, "that these doctors
were all churchmen, clerks, and well
read in law, divine and human ; that
they were all tender and pitiful, and
desired to proceed mildly, seeking
neither vengance nor corporal punish
menty but solely wishing to enlighten
her, and put her in the way of truth
and of salvation ; and that, as she was
not sufficiently informed in such high
matters, the bishop and the inquisitor
offered her the choice of one or more
of the assessors to act as her counsel."
The accused, in presence of this assembly, in which she did not descry a
single friendly face, mildly answered,
" For what you admonish me as to
my good, and concerning our faith, I
thank you ; as to the counsel you offer
me, I have no intention to forsake the
counsel of our Lord."

1"I know not why," says a great spiritual
teacher, " God chooses the most solemn festivals to
try and to purify his elect. ... It is above only, in
the festival of heaven, that we shall be delivered
from all our troubles." - SaintCyran, in the Me
moires de Lancelot, i. 61.

2The office for prime, on this day:
" Deus, in oujonum menm intende. . . ." (Come,
O God, to my aid.)
Every one knows that the service for this festival is one of those in which the beautiful dramatic
forms of the middle age have l)een preserved. The
procession finds the door of the church shut, the
minister knocks : " Attollite portas. . . , And the
door is opened to the Lord.